ultimatepopculturefandomcom-20200216-history
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)
| narrator = Bill Hader | starring = Bill Hader Anna Faris James Caan Neil Patrick Harris Bruce Campbell Andy Samberg Mr. T Bobb'e J. Thompson Benjamin Bratt Al Roker Lauren Graham Will Forte | music = Mark Mothersbaugh | editing = Robert Fisher Jr. | studio = Sony Pictures Animation | distributor = Columbia Pictures | released = | runtime = 90 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $100 million | gross = $243,006,126 }} 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy family film produced by Sony Pictures Animation, distributed by Columbia Pictures, and released on September 18, 2009. The film is loosely based on the children's book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett. The film features the voices of Bill Hader, Anna Faris, Bruce Campbell, James Caan, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Andy Samberg, Mr. T, Benjamin Bratt, Neil Patrick Harris, Al Roker, Lauren Graham and Will Forte. It was written and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who both and Forte are best known for the animated TV series ''Clone High. It received positive reviews, and was a modest box office success, earning $243 million worldwide. A sequel, titled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, is scheduled to be released on September 27, 2013. Plot Flint Lockwood has always wanted to construct something spectacular, but his inventing devices have repeatedly failed, including Spray on shoes, remote controlled television, rat birds, hair unbalder and the flying car. He lives in Swallow Falls with his technophobic father Tim who misunderstands his son's talent. The town's Baby Brent Sardine cannery has closed down, leaving the town only sardines for nourishment. Along with the aid of his pet monkey, Steve, Flint invents a mechanism that mutates water into food, called the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator" (FLDSMDFR for short). The mechanism absorbs masses of megawatts of electricity from the nearby power plant and ends up rocketing through town and shooting up into the stratosphere, destroying Sardine Land. While recuperating from his failure, he meets Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather intern whose big break was foiled by Flint's actions. They witness clouds floating over the town that rain cheeseburgers to their astonishment and happiness. Realizing his accomplishment and potential, Flint invents a communication device to send orders to the FLDSMDFR to order certain types of food. Swallow Falls (now renamed Chewandswallow) is now attracting tourists. Everyone is going well until Tim fails to show appreciation for his son including the fact that the people (including the Mayor) start greedily requesting food for Flint to rain. Flint notices that the food is beginning to rain in massive quantities, but the Mayor (now morbidly obese and having to move with a scooter) sees it as a better outcome for him and the city and blackmails Flint to continue making food for the city. Citizens and worldly tourists in Chewandswallow are blissful until suddenly a large destructive tornado formed of spaghetti and meatballs threatens the town. Flint rushes to the lab to turn the FLDSMDFR off and attempts to send a 'kill code' to stop the machine, but the Mayor accidentally throws a radish to destroy the communication device. A shocked Mayor then tells Flint that he ordered a Las Vegas style All You Can Eat Buffet, before fleeing in fear. A massive food storm threatens the world and Flint loses hope. However, his father encourages him to fix the mess. Flint gains self-confidence and places the kill code in a USB flash drive and invents the Flying Car 2. Flint, Sam, her cameraman, Manny, Steve and Brent set out to terminate the FLDSMDFR. Entering the stratosphere, they find that the machine is the sole core of a giant meatball and it sends sentient food to attack them. In the chaos, Flint loses the kill code when the flash drive flies out of the Flying Car 2. Back at Chewandswallow, the citizens and tourists, with the help of Earl, escape. Mt. Leftovers collapses, causing an avalanche of food — a food''alanche — to destroy Chewandswallow. The foodalanche covers Flint's Lab with Tim still trying to send Flint the kill code. However, he survives and he successfully clicks send. Flint goes inside the meatball, finds the machine, and jams the phone into the USB port. However to his obvious frustration he learns that Tim had sent him the wrong document. Flint destroys the machine by using his Spray-On Shoes formula and it explodes. They return safely to the aftermath of Chewandswallow. Tim finally shows his appreciation for his son and his inventions and then Flint and Sam celebrate with a kiss. Meanwhile, as a comeuppance for his actions, the obese mayor gets stranded in the middle of the sea, having eaten nearly all of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich boat. Cast * Bill Hader as Flint Lockwood, an inventor. Hader also did the voice of the "FLDSMDFR" machine. ** Max Neuwirth as Young Flint * Anna Faris as Samantha "Sam" Sparks, a weather intern from New York City. * James Caan as Tim Lockwood, Flint's technophobic, widowed father. * Neil Patrick Harris as Steve the Monkey, Flint's pet Vervet monkey who communicates using a Speak and Spell monkey thought translator. * Bruce Campbell as Mayor Shelbourne, the gluttonous and egotistical mayor of Swallow Falls. * Andy Samberg as Brent McHale, an infamous celebrity mascot of Baby Brent's Sardines. * Mr. T as Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's athletic cop. * Bobb'e J. Thompson as Calvin "Cal" Devereaux, Earl's son. * Benjamin Bratt as Manny, Sam's Guatemalan cameraman and a former doctor, co-pilot, and comedian. * Al Roker as Patrick Patrickson, the anchorman of the weather station. * Lauren Graham as Fran Lockwood, Flint's mother who died ten years before Flint invented the FLDSMDFR. * Will Forte as Joseph Towne, a redneck citizen of Chewandswallow. Production On May 9, 2003, a year after establishment, Sony Pictures Animation announced its first animated slate, including ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, a film adaptation of the book. The Brizzi brothers were brought to direct the film, with Wayne Rice adapting the screenplay. In 2006, it was reported that the film had been helmed by new directors and writers, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. On September 18, 2008, Variety announced that Bill Hader and Anna Faris had signed on to voice the two lead characters, with James Caan, Bruce Campbell, Mr. T, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Bobb'e J. Thompson, Benjamin Bratt, Al Roker, Lauren Graham and Will Forte also in the voice cast. Co-writers and co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller said later that year that it would be a homage to, and a parody of, disaster films such as Twister, Armageddon, The Core, and The Day After Tomorrow. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the second film (after Monster House) made using animation rendering software, Arnold, and the open source image toolkit OpenImageIO. Music Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a soundtrack to the film of the same name, released under Sony Pictures Entertainment on September 15, 2009. The music of the film and this album are both credited to be composed and produced by American composer Mark Mothersbaugh. Track listing Release Home media The film was released on DVD, Blu-ray and PSP UMD on January 5, 2010 in the United States and Canada. A 3D Blu-ray was released on June 22, 2010. It was the first 3D Blu-ray sold individually in the United States. Art book In August 2009, Insight Editions published a companion book to the film called The Art and Making of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Reception Critical response The film has received very positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 86% of critics gave positive reviews based on 136 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The consensus statement reads, "Quirky humor, plucky characters and solid slapstick make this family comedy a frenetically tasty time at the movies." Another review aggretator, Metacritic, which normalizes a rating from mainstream critics, gave the film an approval rating of 66 based on 24 reviews. Ernest Hardy of LA Weekly stated the film "is smart, insightful on a host of relationship dynamics, and filled with fast-paced action." Hardy also applauded the 3-D effects which "are wonderful, full of witty sight gags that play out both center-screen and on the periphery." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film a mixed review stating that "Crazy doesn't always equal funny, and the gigantism of this 3-D offering's second half puts a damper on your enjoyment. But look: This film wasn't made for you, or me. It was made for dangerously, easily distracted 9-year-olds." Kyle Smith of the New York Post gave the film two stars stating that the animated film "greatly expands on the kids' book on which it's based in a clever and engaging first half. But the second half leaves a foul aftertaste." Animator John Kricfalusi, known for his generally negative opinions on modern animation, did a review of the movie on his blog, saying that "movie was an optimistic portent of what could be. It's basically an undirected film - but one that allowed many of the artists to take nothing scenes and add some kind of cleverness, design and action to the formulaic events being told by the story." Box office Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was a box office success, earning a total of $243 million on a reported budget of $100 million. 51% of the gross or $124,870,275 came from the domestic market, while the rest, $118,135,851, from other territories. The film earned $8,137,358 on its opening Friday, and ranked #1 at the box office with a total of $30.3 million for the first weekend. On its second weekend, it remained at #1 with a decrease of only 17%. It currently holds the record for third largest-opening weekend in the month of September. Accolades Sequel A sequel, titled Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, is in production for a September 27, 2013 release. It is being directed by Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn, and will be based on an original idea, where Flint and his friends must again save the world from the food machine, this time producing living food beasts. Most of the main cast will reprise their roles, with Terry Crews replacing Mr. T. New cast also includes Kristen Schaal as orangutan Barb, and Will Forte in his new role of Chester V. See also * ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs'' (video game), based on the film. References External links * * * * * * Category:2009 films Category:2000s 3D films Category:2000s comedy films Category:American animated films Category:American comedy films Category:American disaster films Category:English-language films Category:Animated comedy films Category:Children's fantasy films Category:Computer-animated films Category:Fantasy-comedy films Category:Films based on children's books Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Sony Pictures Animation films Category:Columbia Pictures animated films Category:Columbia Pictures films Category:American 3D films Category:Directorial debut films Category:2009 animated films Category:Films directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller